Shanghai Day 2 and on to Hong Kong

so day 2 in shanghai was kind of a whirlwind as our train to guilin left at 5. we went to the shanghai museum and looked at more jade, seals and bronze pottery than one person can handle. it was interesting though. they had a russian and an indian exhibit going on. we were wondering how much russian porcelan chinese people have seen before. it looks so different than traditional chinese stuff.

then we got on the LOOONGEST train ride. we were expecting it to be 12-14 hours like the others, but no. it was TWENTY THREE HOURS. thank goodness we had sleeper seats. the people below us were pretty nice. we had the same reaction once they figured out that i spoke a little english. one man refused to understand anything i said in chinese and this woman had to repeat everything i said for him. at one point i said 'you really don't understand what i'm saying?' in chinese and the guy replied 'i really don't understand.' ...so. who knows. it's just kind of annoying when you're trying really hard to communicate in a language that isn't even close to your own and people don't give you the benefit of the doubt. but the other people were very nice.

ate some delicious train food in a little cardboard box for $2. and we had our first instant noodles with some boiling water from the train car.

then we finally arrived in guilin around 3pm and decided it wasn't that great so we got on a bus and went to yangshou which sounded like a nicer spot, according to lonely planet. it would kind of remind you of cancun or koh tao how it's completely made for tourists. we're staying on a street called xi jie (west street) and it's wall to wall trinkets and "silks" and "pashminas" and western bars and tourists. you can hardly walk through the street there are so many people.

not sure what we're going to do today. google guilin or yangshou and check out the limestone mountain/hill things. i think we're going to climb up one of those today. other than that, i think we both feel like laying kind of low. guillermo got some bad news from home that he doesn't want to talk about, but he's bummed out. we'll see.

leaving for hong kong tonight. two of my friends who were teaching in taiwan with me are living there now, so it will be fun to see them. truth be told though, i really just want to be in taiwan. it's been a whole lot of overnight trains and new hotels and new streets to figure out. it will be nice to be somewhere familiar a week from now.

thank you for the comments and emails :) it's been nice to feel like i'm in touch. went on a boat cruise up the li river this afternoon. it was breezy and cool on the water which was a nice change from the heat of the town on a sunny day. our PVC raft was powered by a lawnmower motor on a stick with a propellor at the end of it. very chinese. at the top of the river, our driver paused on this tiny island so we could take a picture of 9 horses mountain (or something) and guillermo wanted a picture with a bunch of chinese people our age. after that, they all wanted a picture with me. he took the same pictures as all of them took, it's pretty funny to see. embarrassing but fun.

then we just had indian food and hour and a half massages for $8. not bad at all. we have an hour to kill until our bus comes to pick us up to go to shenzhen which is the chinese border town that gets you through to hong kong. once we get there, we'll stay with my friend jane who i met during open water dive certification in thailand when i was on vacation from teaching in taiwan. i only hung out with her for a few days while we were there, but she's a nice english girl. she lives across from a pub.

talk to you from hong kong.
:)